Israel retaliates against Iran attack in Golan Heights

Details are still emerging, but Israel says that areas of the Golan Heights that it occupies have come under attack directly from Iran’s Quds Force in neighboring Syria and that it retaliated, possibly by striking targets in the Syrian capital Damascus. The incident reflects the latest in a series of increasingly serious exchanges between the two countries in the region and comes amid increased tensions following the United States’ decision to withdraw from a controversial deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

In the early hours local time in Israel on May 10, 2018, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that at least 20 unspecified rockets had landed in the Golan, but caused no injuries. Alert sirens reportedly went off in the Israeli communities of Majdal Shams, Neve Ativ, Nimrod, Masa’ade, Buqa’ata, Odem, and El Rom and Iron Dome systems fired an unknown number of interceptors and shot down at least some of the incoming projectiles. The attacks immediately followed reported Israeli artillery strikes on forces aligned with Syria’s dictator Bashar Al Assad, possibly Iranian-backed militias and their Iranian advisers, in the Syrian city of Baath in the Quneitra Governorate.

“The IDF sees this Iranian attack on Israel with severity,” IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told The Times of Israel shortly after midnight on May 10, 2018. “This event is not over,” he stressed at the time.